The Order of the Stick

But are kept guarded, yes? By the authority that are responsible for their creation?

The deities choices are to unmake the world or protect the rifts and gates from use against them. If they don't want to unmake the world, they absolutely must keep the rifts guarded.

And guarding the rifts by the gods naturally entails the use of clerics.

They're defended by a single authority with a single purpose, in what ways that authority sees fit - which involves more surveillance and less active presence. They're often hidden in plain sight, such as seemingly unimportant grain silos actually being missile silos.

The problem with the pantheon trying to do this is that they are not a single authority. It's more along the lines of the U.N. trying to agree on what to do with the missiles of every member nation. Everyone has a different idea for how best to do it.

Inability to reach a compromise for the right way to secure the Gates is what led to the Order of the Scribble's fracture. I'm not convinced, from what we've seen of them, that the gods would be better at arriving at a unanimous decision that every god will uphold. That they possess the ability to act as a single authority, of a single mind and purpose, for eternity.

edited 2nd Oct '15 2:18:03 PM by TobiasDrake

They're demonstrating their ability to do so right now.

If the godsmoot decides not to unmake the earth, do some of the gods try to unmake that Earth anyway?

or vice versa. If Hel gets her way, do Thor and Odin run around stitching the threads back together?

They've learned from their mistake with the Snarl. The current world is a testament to that.

The "United States" isn't a single authority. It's under the military leadership of the president, sure, but its legal and judicial power are in the hands of two other houses. Legislative power is further divided among the political parties of its representatives. Once they come to a consensus or a vote the law is required to see their final decision through no matter who opposes it.

I'm simplifying, of course.

But the pantheons do seem quite willing to work with each other to secure their safety. I'd bet on their ability to make it work.

edited 2nd Oct '15 2:22:12 PM by blkwhtrbbt

But they're not demonstrating that ability. Look to Hel. Yes, it was only when the Dark One rose to power that a god acted to subvert the Gates, but bear in mind that the Gates have only existed for decades, not centuries or millennia. A mere decades into their existence, a god has devised a plan to use them to his advantage.

And another god has used that plan to her advantage. Hel has actively hindered the defense effort against Xykon and Redcloak in order to manipulate the threat of the Gates in such a fashion as to empower her, and she doesn't have the excuse of being an ascended mortal.

Who will be the next god to look at the Gates and go, "How can I profit from this?"

And when the President gets too tyrannical or when Congress runs afoul the Constitution, the other branches of government reel them in.

We don't profit from hiding nukes and pretending they don't exist and not having highly trained combatants protect them.

we profit by having many layers of checks and balances.

similarly, the gods keep each other in check by their mutual agreements.

Thor conceded the thunderstorm to Hel's cleric's spell. Hel similarly must concede cure poison and disease spells. The discipline is there. Hel just found a loophole that is entirely within their laws.

Hel's plan also would render the issue with the gates moot. The other gods were planning on potentially remaking the world anyway. Hel just profits the most from that decision. With the world remade, there would be no more gates for the Dark One and Redcloak to manipulate.

But the other gods were not planning to let the world be unmade. Before her intervention, the vote had ended in favor of allowing the world to continue and letting the mortals continue attempting to defend the Gates.

Hel has subverted the purpose of the Godsmoot to sway the vote in her favor, so as to use the Gate crisis to benefit herself. Like the Dark One, she intends to play chicken with the Snarl. Neither the Dark One nor Hel desires it released, but both are willing to use the threat of its freedom to cow the other gods into acquiescing to their demands.

Hel's just approached it from a more clever and manipulative position, as opposed to the Dark One's intended use of direct threats.

And, again, the Gates have only existed for a few decades. How long will it take until a third god comes up with a way to use the Gates to benefit him or herself? Or a fourth? The threat of the Snarl has the ability to overrule the democratic process. That is too much temptation for any god.

edited 2nd Oct '15 2:40:54 PM by TobiasDrake

I do suppose that it's not a perfect analogy. We can throw out corrupt congressmen and presidents.

A pantheon can't really throw out a corrupt god.

There really isn't any other authority that can protect the gates. The gods have a self-interest in doing so. Any others would have to have the interest of protection alongside their regular desires.

Have clerics of all the gods at each gate. If one set gets out of hand, the others are there as backup. It's why we have multiple guards stationed at any launch site. If one set goes rogue the others can take him out. Monitor all communications between god and rift-guard. I still say clerics are the best option for guard. Better than no guard at all, and better than guards who have commitments elsewhere that would hinder their efforts.

The Sapphire Guard had to police and guard a nation. Dorukan was lured out by the temptation of a personal affiliation. Rogue dude did a pretty good job of it, it took a pretty contrived situation to destroy the defense he built. His method was to hide the gate, but he still had to keep the gate manned and guarded. Without him, all that's left that can be trusted with the knowledge of the gates and the safety are clerics. Maybe dwarf ones. Dwarves are stubborn and loyal and pack a pretty mean punch. Except for Hilgya...

hmm....

hm

hm

...

Devas, maybe?

Having Clerics of all the gods present at any location makes it clear to the rest of the world that there is something at that location that is worth obtaining. It basically paints a giant target on each Gate that says, "Villains of the world, phat loot here!"

This is the fundamental flaw of trusting the task to the gods' clerics. If only some gods have Clerics at each location, it's too easy for one god to get ambitious. If every god has a Cleric at each location, it puts a glowing advertisement on those locations to any villain that might want to try their luck at a big bad master plan.

It's somewhat ironic that Soon and Gerald independently came up the exact right idea: Hide the gate in plain sight, at the centre of your power, with a huge system in place to protect it, but only those you trust absolutely are allowed to know what they're protecting.

Shame the other Scribblers dropped the ball on that front.

edited 2nd Oct '15 3:15:17 PM by Gilphon

For what it's worth, Tyr's position is based on on the same arguments Tobias is making, so at least some of the gods don't trust anyone with knowledge of the gates.

Don't clerics summon reinforcements most easily of all classes? Besides the clerics can go there in secret. And cast wards. And abjurations.

I'd keep watch over the one thing that could kill me. Rather than hope it stays hidden, especially with at least three pantheons worth of immortal people who ALSO know about said thing.

They are keeping watch. That's how they know it's in trouble and they should vote.

Frankly, the current vote is exactly on this question: can the gods entrust the defense of the universe to mortals? Half say yes, half say no.

edited 2nd Oct '15 4:57:25 PM by Clarste

Those mortals aren't in the personal service of the gods though. They have truly independent allegiances and motivations. The gods do have a history of trying to get along. I'm just surprised NONE of them has been actively involved in the defense of these rifts.

The 12 Gods were directly supporting the paladins of Azure City.

UPDATE

Beat me to it.

I prepared Explosive Runes this morning.

Edit- That last panel is surprisingly frightening.

edited 8th Oct '15 8:04:36 PM by Hodor2

You know, Wrecan's got the right idea.

He needs to just stand in front of Roy as a shield. Durkula shouldn't be able to attack him right?

Cool move anyway.

For a second there I thought the Potion had spoken.

Oh, so Thor can't improve his movement when he's huge, but Hel can.

Likely because they are in the Northern Gods' territory now. Thor couldn't bend the rules last time because Durkon was in the territory of the Southern Gods.

So is "X's Might" a spell that can be used by a follower of any god? I thought it was a spell exclusive to Thor's followers.

The spell is righteous might. Each god flavors it, apparently.

That reminded me- I recently reread the strip when Malack was fighting Durkon and at one point Malack used a Divine Power spell. Is that similar?

Nope, divine power is a different spell.

I like Wrecan. Also, clerics are such bullshit.